Archive for the ‘Corruption’

Quo Vadis, the Conga Line?

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When Sri Lanka vied for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, there was a telling photograph taken at one of the bashes the regime threw in the Caribbean, the culminating event of a labour intensive, extravagant self-indulgent exercise. The photograph has Hon Namal Rajapaksha MP leading a conga line followed by the Governor of the Central Bank. They both seem…well, happy. However, though a good time was had by all no doubt, that conga line led nowhere. We did not win the bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games; agnostics and atheists alike were put on notice about the existence of the divine. The country was saved. Yet the conga line as both a metaphor and description of the structure of power and the ruling regime remains. Into 2012, where will it head? The old year 2011 like all others before was interesting in the sense of the Chinese curse. It saw the steady decline of governance and the Rule of Law,…

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Bell Pottinger and Sri Lanka: A trail of spin doctoring and whitewashing

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Aside from articles appearing last Sunday in the Sunday Times and the Sunday Leader, mainstream media in Sri Lanka has been curiously silent over recent revelations in the British media on the government’s connections with the infamous British PR firm Bell Pottinger. On 6th December, The Independent ran a story on how Bell Pottinger had written the President’s speech to the UN after the end of the war in 2009. The article noted, “Senior executives at Bell Pottinger told undercover reporters that they were so influential that they had written a key speech given by the Sri Lankan President to the United Nations. During the address by President Mahinda Rajapaksa last year, which the company said was used in preference to one prepared by the Sri Lankan foreign ministry, the President suggested rules governing the humanitarian conduct of war should be re-examined. He also described his troops’ action against Tamil Tiger separatists as humanitarian. President Rajapaksa also claimed in the…

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  • 20 Sep, 2011
  • 4 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Corruption,
    Politics and Governance,
    Post-War

Local government elections: Military puppeteers, elected puppets, right to information and people’s liberties

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[Editors note: The author is at the time of writing, the head of the Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte Municipal Council (SJKMC) campaign committee for the UNP. Groundviews is critical of all political parties and candidates, but not equally so. Harsha's article is published here as the extension of a lengthy exchange on the topic of RTI Groundviews has spearheaded with leading local government candidates. Please also read Why is Right to Information in the Moragoda Mayoral Manifesto? and Milinda Moragoda: The gap between promise and reality.] First impressions of Kotte: Similar concerns among dissimilar people Now that I have been entrusted with leading the campaign for the Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte Municipal Council (SJKMC) election I have had the opportunity to visit the homes of many people in the administrative capital of Sri Lanka.  The first thing that struck me was that not only does “the proud city of Jayawardene” as mentioned in the Salalihini Sandesa have a rich history it is rich in its diversity of people.  I…

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Searching for Sri Lanka’s Anna Hazare

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Anna Hazare, courtesy Injustices.in Foundation It was just last week that the BBC featured a documentary describing the post war atrocities committed against vulnerable Tamil women in the north and east who are part of the captive Tamil population subject to heavy militarization. Although the state of emergency was suddenly and mysteriously lifted by the President, last week, obviously due to international pressure, we see that new legislation is being introduced to circumvent such action and thereby nullify the objective of removing now redundant laws that stifle democratic freedoms and fundamental rights of the people. While we wait and watch, another phenomenon is taking place – that of the ‘grease devils’ which, incidentally, was also featured on international news recently. Why are areas of disturbance predominantly in ethnic minority populated regions of the country such as Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee,Batticaloa, Ampara, Puttalam and Hatton. The latest attack being in Kokuvil, Jaffna( recently sinhalized name change is  kokavilla). Use of force by…

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EXCLUSIVE: Interview with TNA MP Suresh Premachandran on the LG elections, Parliamentary Select Committee and Political Solution

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Photo from Wikipedia Groundviews caught up with TNA Member of Parliament Suresh Premachandran, who spoke to us about the nature of election violations that occurred in the Northern Province prior to the 23rd of July and on Election Day, which included intimidation, assault, bribery, voter transportation, continuous campaigning and reports of the systematic and forced appropriation of ballot and identity cards by ‘armed actors’. Premachandran asserted that the result of the election delivered two messages to the Government; firstly, the Tamil people require development, but also ‘a political settlement’ and secondly, that there is a consensus on the need for an ‘investigation’ and ‘some sort of accountability’. Premachandran also spoke about the Government’s insistence on a Parliamentary Select Committee for drawing up a political solution, which he simply dismissed as a ‘delay tactic’. On the issue of negotiations with the Government for a political solution, Premachandran stated that there was ‘no progress on devolution matters’. Furthermore, in what appeared to be…

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The state of tomfoolery: 2018 Comonwealth Games in Hambantota

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A prominent English newspaper recently reported that the government has paid US$ 2.4 million to a British PR firm to promote its candidacy to host the 2018 Comonwealth Games in Hambanthota. This news item would definitely raise the eye brows of many Sri Lankans who constantly get beaten by the scourge of cost of living. For those who are not aware of international currency rates; 2.4 million US dollars means 264 million Rupees. The minimum salary of a state sector worker in Sri Lanka is Rs. 11000. The average monthly income of a middle class family in Sri Lanka is Rs. 20,000. But, the average monthly expenditure of an ordinary middle class family is way higher than that. As we all know, almost every one of us can feel the excessive pressure, generated by the soaring cost of living. Everyone in this country, including the government of Sri Lanka, has adopted a “hand to mouth” policy when it comes to…

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In conversation with Nelum Gamage: Does anyone give a damn about corruption?

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Nelum Gamage, a Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka, was an erstwhile Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), established in 1994 to direct the institution of prosecutions for offences under the Bribery Act and the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law, No. 1 of 1975. She is also Director/Consultant at the Legal Aid Commission at the Ministry of Justice. The conversation began by asking Nelum why even with so much of information on corruption in the public domain, people still didn’t really give a damn about combatting it. Nelum makes the points that even with this information, there is still a lot of ignorance about systemic corruption and that until it impacts one personally, people don’t really take any action against it. We talk about private industry in Sri Lanka and its participation in corrupt practices, in spite of public claims of accountability and good corporate governance. Nelum addresses the point on whether…

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The Ethical Public Servant

The article BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION: The Bane of Our Country by Dr. Daya Hewapathirane  prompted me to go deeper into this issue in the public sector.  I must also note that corruption is not confined to the public sector and that it prevails in the private sector too.  It is also the private sector and private citizens who promote graft as it takes two to tango by being the giver of bribes in exchange for favors. Yet, I refuse to believe that the entire public sector is corrupt.  There are many ethical, dedicated and loyal employees in the public sector who do an honest job of work.  I have come across them be it in the health care, education, banking, port and other sectors. Unfortunately, the public sector is tainted with the image of being corrupt and lazy.  Of course certain public sector departments are prone to corruption much more than others and these problems have to be rooted out…

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“Chiran Jayathu” – “Aayubowewa”

Let all as citizens comprising the civil society of Sri Lanka, join together in unison and with one voice, in response to the earnest appeal made by Renton de Alwis in “Back to Basics” stating “Our President is taking on the next phase of his governance. There is so much more he has to do to guide this nation on. For that we must wish him well and more importantly, resolve that there is so much each of us as individuals and as one big family of 20 million people can and must do, to help ourselves” and wish H.E. the President on his birthday and assumption of his second term of office saying “Chiran Jayathu” and “Aayubowewa”, Happy Birthday and All the Very Best, thus expressing sincere appreciation of his leadership and governance of the past and also for the expected delivery in the future as supported by the following: “I am proud to announce that my country has…

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Tamils done with – Sinhalese to be done with

“Then they came for me” an oft quoted poem by German pastor Niemoller, in stressing the need for timely political action in difficult political contexts does have sense today, in its abstract form. Yet what is NOT said is that, Martin Niemoller was a dumb anti Communist who helped Hitler to come to power in Germany. What is NOT said is, his anti Communism supplemented Hitler’s racist ideology in letting lose a holocaust that made his poem irrelevant in Hitler’s Germany. So it seems for the Sinhala South, after they gleefully established this regime to wage war against Tamil separatism at the cost of human decency and democracy. The JVP is now writhing and wriggling, unable to cope with the battering it is receiving by the Rajapaksa regime, it aggressively helped establish, calling all those who foresaw this tragedy as “traitors” and “Tiger supporters”. The JVP thus helped this Rajapaksa regime in crushing any credible opposition to its warring agenda….

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Bell Pottinger and Sri Lanka: Millions spent for what?

Bell Pottinger hired Qorvis Communications as a subcontractor for its work with the government of Sri Lanka, starting December 1, according to a filing with the US Department of Justice. Qorvis is providing media relations and monitoring, crisis communications planning, and stakeholder representation in the US. The budget is approximately $483,000. Though freely available on the web since January this year, this information to the best of our knowledge has not been prominently featured or robustly questioned in mainstream media to date. Bell Pottinger is one of the UK’s largest public relations firms, spin doctors par excellence for those who can afford them, including amongst many others, the Government of Iran, members of the government of Saudi Arabia and in the past, General Augusto Pinochet. The British oil company Trafigura was also a key client, yet despite this was named and shamed in the media for uncontrolled dumping of hundreds of tonnes of highly toxic oil waste around Abidjan, the…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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